By: Vadim Kotelnikov

Founder, Ten3 Business e-Coach – Your 360 Achievement Catalyst

"If all my possessions were taken

from me with one exception, I
would chose to keep the power for
speech, for by it I would soon
regain all the rest."
– Daniel Webster

The Meaning of the Communication is the Response Your Get (an NLP presupposition)
We often deal with new ideas, with changing how things are done, with trying to
persuade others about your point of view. There are many built-in obstacles to people
automatically accepting and absorbing information, however.

10 Great Communication Quotes

Perhaps the greatest single stumbling block to real communication is the one-sided nature of speaking. Most of us think of
"communicating" as a one-way process. We concentrate on what to say, how to say, and how to communicate it better. But, in
our zeal to achieve our goal and get our message across to others, we forget that at the other end of our message is an 'other' –
someone with his own zeal, his own goal, and his own concerns. These often do not coincide with ours, especially at the
moment when we are about to start communicating our new ideas.

Yin and Yang of Communication

The Elevator Speech
In communication circles, there's the Elevator Speech. You've got to be able to get your key point across in a matter of seconds,
in the time you'd spend taking a short elevator ride.

Synergistic Selling: 3 Pillars

Engaging in a Dialogue
"Two monologues do not make a dialogue." Exchange between you and your targeted prospect is the key to effective
communication. So, listening is an active pursuit for selling your ideas. "Selling isn't happening when you are talking. Selling
happens when your prospect is talking," stresses Terry Collison from Blue Rock Capital. Unless you can get the both sides
equally involved in the exchange you may as well deliver your idea or request to the mirror.

The Tao of Effective Listening

Making the listener want to hear you is primary. Why would someone else spontaneously get interested in your vested stuff?
You'd need a propellant - something that could make a difference and actively turn your audience towards your pursuit and
away from theirs.
What makes people listen? The three basic factors are:
1. Self-interest;
2. Who's speaking; and
3. How they say it.
Understanding the basic principles of how we communicate and why we listen – what works, what doesn't, and why – starts you
on the road to a realistic appraisal of what you want to say and how you plan to say it.
The best way to generate the receiver's self-interest and to get people to listen is to discover and show them what's in it for
them. It's to let them know that you understand their self-interest by focusing on their point of view at the start, before you tell
them about yours. That will motivate them to turn in.
The next factor that determines whether people listen is who's speaking, their perception of the speaker. If you are successful,

this will cause your audience to consciously think about what you are saying. But you must first interrupt the thinking patterns

they have developed. You must force or compel your target market to dispense of the mental inertia that has mesmerized them
in to behavior patterns and belief systems they have established which creates a “guardian of the mind” phenomenon.5
Certain basic personal qualities immediately capture us and make us want to listen to your message.
The third reason people listen is technique, or how you say it. Style and technique have become the principal determinants o
f whether or now we sell or tell successfully today. Words and people are no longer the primary message givers.
Now pictures tell. The listener expects a visual proof, not to take anyone's word for it.
Further, it is always important to remember how people feel about learning. Knowing how people react to learning is vital to
planning your communication strategy.
New information or information that challenges existing beliefs or systems presents
problem to any communicator. Benjamin Franklin advised: "Don't expect to win the first
time. Your first job is just to start the other person thinking." (see Negotiation Tips). Only
few people are explorers. The rest are
grounded in the familiar and what is proven to work. Therefore, the first reaction to learning is often resistance, as most people
feel (a) threatened, (b) intimidated, (c) competitive; and (d) to be on an unfamiliar ground. The safest way to overcome these
obstacles is to discuss the new information by beginning with what is known. To start with the familiar and then to add the new
and variations or take-offs from the old to what it could be.

Failure Story Hilary Clinton

During her presidential 2008 campaign, in New Hampshire, Sen. Hillary Clinton said about the Russian president Putin, "By
definition he doesn't have a soul" because "he was a (former) KGB agent". By saying so, she was courting popularity, but
achieved negative results.
Did she realized that by making such a profession-based generalization she claimed that all secret service agents around the
world, including CIA and FBI agents, – who else? policemen? soldiers? sportsmen?... – had no soul? If she didn't realized that,
is she smart enough to become a US president?
Further, have Putin and all secret service agents – or all the professionals? – around the world became soulless immediately
after Hilary Clinton said so? They didn't, of course. Buy saying so the Senator just made people question existence of her own
soul and, if the the answer is negative, to ask, "If is she a good presidential candidate for United States?"
Here is another comment from Reuter's discussion room regarding this remark made by Hilary Clinton: "This comment by Hillary d
extreme arrogance. After making this comment, how does she plan to deal with Putin if she were to be elected president? By
making this remark she put Russia on the extreme enemy list. If elected, is she willing to deal with the consequences?"
As a result, Hilary Clinton's competitor, Democrat Barack Obama rocketed to a 10-point lead over Hillary Clinton in New
Hampshire in the state's presidential primary.
So, watch your mouth, as a small, but awkward remark may result in a huge disaster for you and your business.

Or, even better, as Buddha advised, watch your thought, as "from right thought proceeds right speech."
 Positive Qualities Negative Qualities
that can cause us to begin giving the centre stage away to become a that create and environment in which we want to find a way out of
willing and interested listener listening further to such a person

 Warm, friendly, honest and open  Formal and stuffy

 Exciting, creative, and interesting  Closed and false

 Knowledgeable and/or confident  Pompous and/or patronizing

 Organized  Monotonous and/or lethargic

 Authentic  Vague, complex, or irrelevant

 Inspiring  Unsure, nervous, or hyper-intense

ORGANIZING THE TALK

Clear organization is vital to effective speaking. The most prevalent weakness among speakers at
all levels is the failure to organize material for the audience. Speakers have the responsibility to
lead listeners mentally from where they are at the beginning of a talk to where they are supposed
to be at the end. The message must be organized with the audience in mind; the organization
should conform to the thinking processes and expectations of the listeners.

Each speech, lecture, and briefing needs an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. In most
instances the introduction and conclusion should be prepared after the body of the talk, since the
material in the body is a guide for preparing the introduction and conclusion.

The first consideration in planning the

body is how to organize the main points,
but organization of subpoints is also
important. Arrangement of the main
points and subpoints will help both the
speaker and the audience remember the
material—the speaker while speaking,
and the audience while listening.

Most oral presentations, regardless of

their length, can be divided into two to
five main points. Five is about the maximum number of points from one talk that listeners can be
expected to remember.
The most typical ways of organizing main points or subpoints of a talk are by the patterns: time,
space, cause/effect, problem/solution, pro/con, or topic. Furthermore, as illustrated throughout
this chapter, certain strategies can be used with each pattern. How does a speaker decide which
patterns and strategies to use? The material will often organize more easily with one pattern and
strategy than with another. Consider how various patterns and strategies can be used to organize
the main points.

Time
Our vocabularies are filled with words that refer to time: now, tomorrow, yesterday, today,
sooner, later, earlier, next (last) week (month, year, time). We work, play, sleep, and eat at certain
times. Major events in our lives are organized by time: births, engagements, marriages, deaths.
The time, or chronological pattern of organization, then, is a natural way of arranging events in
the sequence or order in which they happened or in giving directions on the order to be followed
in carrying out those events. This kind of organization is sometimes called sequential
organization. Certain processes, procedures, or historical movements and developments can
often be explained best with a time-sequence organizational pattern.

The medical technician discussing the mouth-to-mouth system of artificial respiration would
probably use a time order for the main points: (1) preliminary steps in preparing the body—
proper position, mouth open, tongue and jaw forward, (2) the mouth-to-
mouth process, (3) caring for the patient once breathing resumes. Time order is also a logical
approach for talks dealing with such subjects as "How to Pack a Parachute," ''Development of the
B-1 Bomber," or "How to Prepare a Speech.'' Furthermore, any talk on a subject with several
phases lends itself well to the time pattern. For example, a talk with an objective for the audience
to know that the common market was originally planned to develop in three phases might have
as main points: (1) phase one, a customs union where nations agreed to reduce duties, (2) phase
two, an economic union allowing laborers and goods to move freely across national borders, and
(3) phase three, a political union with national representatives as members of a common
parliament and using a common currency.

Of course, rather than looking forward in time from a given moment, the strategy might be to
look backward from a point in time. In other words, the strategy might be to move from recent to
earlier time rather than from early to late. Regardless of which strategy is used, the flow of the
talk and the transitions from one point to the next should make the chronological relationship
between main points clear to audience members.

Space
A spatial or geographical pattern is very effective in describing relationships. When using this
pattern, the talk is developed according to some directional strategy such as east to west or north
to south. For instance, if the speaker were describing the domino theory of Communist
infiltration, the strategy would probably be to arrange the main points according to the
geographical locations of various nations and how they would be affected by Communist
infiltration within their geographical region.
With talks on certain objects, the strategy might be to arrange the main points from top to bottom
or bottom to top. A fire extinguisher might be described from top to bottom, an organizational
chart from the highest ranking individuals to the lowest ones in the organization, a library
according to the services found on the first floor, then the second, and finally those on the third.

Sometimes, the strategy is to organize the talk from the center to the outside. For example, the
control panel in an airplane might be discussed by describing first those often used instruments
in the center, then by moving out toward the surrounding instruments which are used least often.

In all talks arranged spatially, each aspect or main point needs to be introduced according to the
strategy used. Just as with a talk organized by time, the subject matter and the transitions should
include elaboration and clarification of how the main points relate to one another. A simple
listing of the various objects or places without elaboration as to how they are related may
confuse the listeners.

Cause/Effect
A causal pattern of arrangement is used in a talk where one set of conditions is given as a cause
for another set. In such talks, one of two basic strategies may be used to arrange main points.
With a cause/effect strategy you begin with a given set of conditions and contend that these will
produce or have already produced certain results or effects; with an effect/cause strategy you take
a certain set of conditions as the effects and allege that they resulted from certain causes.

The cause/effect strategy might be used in a talk concerning the increasing number of women in
the Air Force. The talk might first discuss the fact that women are now assuming more
responsible leadership roles in the Air Force. One effect of women assuming such roles might be
that women are joining the Air Force in increasing numbers.

The effect/cause strategy might be used in a talk on child abuse. The first point might explain the
effects of child abuse upon the children themselves, the parents, and even on society. The second
point might allege that the causes are that parents themselves were abused as children or that
proper education on parenting was not received.

Whichever strategy is used, two cautions must be observed. (1) Beware of false causes. Just
because one event or circumstance precedes another does not mean that the former causes the
latter. Many persons assume that "first A happened, then B took place, so A must have caused B."
(2) Beware of single causes. Few things result from a single cause. Many causes are more
common with one playing on another until it is hard to disentangle them. Lack of safety features
on automobiles is not the only cause of most highway accidents; but this cause, plus careless
driving or unsafe highways, may account for many highway accidents.

Problem/Solution
This pattern, sometimes called the disease/remedy pattern or the need/satisfaction pattern,
presents listeners with a problem and then proposes a way to solve it. With this pattern, you must
show that a problem exists and then offer a corrective action that is (1) practical, (2) desirable,
(3) capable of being put into action, and (4) able to relieve the problem. It must also be one that
does not introduce new and worse evils of its own. For example, the issue of controlling nuclear
weapons has long been debated. Those against control argue that erosion of national sovereignty
from arms control is more dangerous than no control.

The problem/solution pattern is especially useful with briefings whose purpose is to provide
listeners with information on which to base decisions. It can also be used effectively with
persuasive speeches and teaching lectures where the speaker wants to present a need or a
problem followed by a way or ways to satisfy the need or solve the problem.

There are different strategies that might be employed when using the problem/solution method.
If the listeners are aware of the problem and the possible solutions, you will probably discuss the
problem briefly, mention the possible solutions, then spend more time in showing why one
solution is better than others. For instance, if the objective is for listeners to comprehend that
solar energy is the best solution to the energy crisis, our main points might be: (1) The world is
caught in the grip of an energy crisis. (2) Several solutions are possible. (3) Solar energy is the
best long-term solution.

If the listeners are not aware or are only slightly aware of the problem or need, you may describe
in detail the exact nature of the problem. Sometimes, when listeners become aware of the
problem, the solution becomes evident and little time is needed to develop the solution in the
lesson. At other times, you may need to spend time developing both the problem and the
solution.

Still another strategy is to alternate or stagger portions of the problem with portions of the
solution. For example, the cost of a project may be seen as one problem, work-
ability another, time to do the projects as a third. Taking up each portion and, in turn, providing
solutions to cost, workability, and time as you present these aspects of the problem may be more
satisfying to your listeners than if you had discussed all of the problem and then its total solution.
The problem/solution pattern is a good one for advocacy or persuasive briefings.

Pro/Con
The pro/con pattern, sometimes called the for/against pattern or advantages/dis-
advantages pattern, is similar to a problem/ solution pattern in that the talk is usually planned so
as to lead to a conclusion. A major difference, however, is that fairly even attention is usually
directed toward both sides of an issue with a pro/con pattern.

There are various strategies to consider when using the pro/con pattern. One consideration is
whether to present pro or con first. Another is whether to present both sides and let listeners draw
their own conclusions or to present the material in such a way that listeners are led to accept the
"school solution." For instance, with a talk on the effects of jogging, you must decide whether to
present the advantages or disadvantages first. Then you must decide whether to let listeners make
their own decision as to the advantages or disadvantages.
When deciding the specific strategy to use with the pro/con pattern and determining how much
time to spend on each, the following guidelines may be helpful: (1) Giving both sides fairly even
emphasis is most effective when the weight of evidence is clearly on the favored side. (2)
Presenting both sides is most effective when listeners may be initially opposed to the school
solution. (3) Presenting only the favored side is most effective when listeners already favor the
school solution or conclusion. (4) Presenting the favored side last makes its acceptance more
likely, especially if the other side is not shown in too favorable a light.

Topical
A topical division of the main points of a talk involves determining categories of the subject.
This type of categorizing or classifying often springs directly from the subject itself. For
instance, a talk about a typical college population might be divided into topical divisions of
freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, with each class division serving as a main point.
Housing might be discussed in terms of on-base and off-base housing. A talk on the MX
intercontinental ballistic missile might be arranged according to the main points of warhead,
guidance, and propulsion systems.

At times the material itself suggests certain strategies for ordering the main points. For instance,
a talk on lesson planning would most likely begin with knowledge-level planning as the first
main point since knowledge-level lessons are generally simpler to understand. Then the lesson
would move on through the hierarchy to comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and,
finally, evaluation levels. In other words your talk would follow a simple-to-complex strategy in
organizing the "topics'' or levels of lessons.

Other talks might follow strategies of known to unknown, general to specific, or specific to
general arrangement of topical main points. There are many strategies for arranging topical main
points. The important consideration, as with any pattern, is to give thought to the strategy of
arrangement in order to help the listeners' understanding.

Combining Patterns
If a single pattern is used to organize the main points, your talks will make more sense. And as a
speaker, you will be able to remember more readily what your main points are when you present
the talk. Even more important, listeners will be able to follow the talk more easily and remember
what you said if a single logical pattern of organization is used for the main points.

Although you may choose a certain organizational pattern for the main points, you may decide to use
different patterns for subpoints. Consider the following tentative outline (fig. 1) of a talk with an
objective or goal for listeners to know the importance of nonverbal factors of communication. Notice
that the main points (1. Performance Factors, and 2. Nonperformance Factors) are arranged topically.
The subpoints for main point 1 (upper, middle, and lower body) are organized spatially. A pro/con
pattern is followed in discussing positive and negative effects from each body performance factor. The
subpoints of main point 2 (objects, space, and time) are organized topically. Subpoints under 2a are
organized by time. Subpoints under 2b are organized topically.
 NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

1. Performance Factors

a. Upper Body (head and face)

(1) Positive Effects

(2) Negative Effects

b. Middle Body (arms, hands, torso)

(1) Positive Effects

(2) Negative Effects

c. Lower Body (hips, legs, feet)

(1) Positive Effects

(2) Negative Effects

2. Nonperformance Factors

a. Objects

(1) Present
(2) Past

b. Space

(1) Personal
(2) Constructed

c. Time

Figure 1

The important thing to remember is that each set of main points or subpoints should follow a
logical pattern of organization. The tentative outline reflects this fact. Of course, it may be that
none of the formal patterns of organization discussed in this chapter adequately fits your content.
For instance, with a speech to entertain, you might simply string together a group of interesting
or humorous incidents that would hold the audience's attention. But whatever the case, you must
strive to organize your talk in a way that will help you present the information to your listeners in
the most meaningful fashion. As you construct a tentative outline, you must do so with your
listeners' needs in mind. Quite often, the experienced speaker revises the outline three or four
times before being satisfied and finally putting it into final form for the talk.
 Now that You Have Organized
The organization patterns and strategies you choose provide structure to the body of your talk.
But structure without content is not enough. Interesting and effective supporting material is
needed. To use an anatomical analogy, the organization provides the skeleton and the supporting
material supplies the flesh for the body of the talk. The next chapter discusses how to choose
effective visual and verbal support for the talk. The following chapter suggests how to begin and
end various kinds of talks. The final chapter tells how to present talks.